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How vegetated foreshores can contribute to limiting dike dimensions of sea dikes : a case study into the assessment and design procedure of including the quantitative effect of the foreshore in the flood defence system

Lambers, Marit (2022) How vegetated foreshores can contribute to limiting dike dimensions of sea dikes : a case study into the assessment and design procedure of including the quantitative effect of the foreshore in the flood defence system.

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Abstract:Due to the inevitable effects of climate change, more frequent and more extreme storms will take place. In addition, Sea Level Rise (SLR) will be present such that the pressure on coastal flood protection increases. Moreover, since the magnitude of the effects of climate change is still uncertain, there is a great need for primary flood defences to be adaptive to effectively respond to the changing boundary conditions. Due to the self-organising behaviour of ecosystems, there is more often looked for solutions that work together with nature resulting in Nature-based flood defences. In this research, the Wide Green Dike (WGD) pilot study in the Ems-Dollard estuary in the Netherlands is used as an example of a Nature-based flood defence. For the WGD pilot study, 1 km of dike is being reinforced with a thick clay layer on the seaward side while also decreasing the outer dike slope to fulfil the safety standards against erosion. Besides the adaptive capacity of this reinforcement, compared to the traditional way of reinforcing with concrete, a wide vegetated foreshore is present in front of the dike. Due to the self-sustaining behaviour of this foreshore, caused by the enhancement of sedimentation by the presence of vegetation, the foreshore should be able to grow along with SLR. Moreover, due to the capacity of the vegetation to mitigate wave conditions by increased bottom friction, the vegetated foreshore lowers the hydraulic boundary conditions (= wave impact as well as wave conditions) such as the significant wave height.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Sweco
Faculty:ET: Engineering Technology
Programme:Civil Engineering and Management MSc (60026)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/92306
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